


Harmony in C

by Nhitori



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Another Episode, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Artistic Liberties, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, ghost - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 16:05:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13193631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhitori/pseuds/Nhitori
Summary: You wrote the song I wanna play, I'll write you Harmony in C."But Nhitori, what makes this fic any different from all of the other 'what happens after the survivors go to the outside world' fics?""There's Ghost Kaede.  And characters from past games.  That's it.""That's pretty lame.""Yeah.  Hope you like it anyway."





	Harmony in C

Kaede Akamatsu woke up.

The first thing that she felt was a terrible, choking feeling around her neck. Her hands flew to it, but there was nothing there, just skin. Soft skin, too soft. She put some pressure with one finger and confirmed her suspicion. Bruises, and deep. Why was that her priority? She still felt as if she was being strangled, even if nothing concrete seemed to be doing it to her.

"Fuck. I can't believe she's done this," A voice snapped Kaede out of her stupor, and she whirled to her left, where the sound had come from. Sitting there was a boy. His hair was a pallid shade of green which made Kaede think of the juice from a pickle jar, and there was blood running through it from a wound on the back of his head. It took her a moment to realize who he was, gathering up her scattered memories.

"...Amami?" Kaede questioned, removing her fingers from her own throat. The awful feeling was beginning to fade, at least enough that she realized through the pain that she could actually breathe. She didn't feel confident in her ability to stand, so she crawled over to him, staring.

"Akamatsu," Rantaro said back to her, turning to look her in the eyes, "God, you look terrible."

"You're not much of a picture yourself, but I guess that's my fault," Kaede noted, looking him over, "Uh... What exactly is going on here? I thought you were dead?"

"Yeah, so are you," Rantaro answered without hesitation, pulling what looked like a smartphone from his pocket, "I'm not your fault, though. You aren't the one who killed me... Even if you were, I probably wouldn't hold it against you."

Kaede froze up, but only for a few moments before her curiosity got the better of her and she prodded him for more, "What do you mean? We're dead?"

"You should have one of these too," Rantaro waved the phone at her, then messed around on it for a few seconds, pulling up youtube. Rather than the usual variety of videos in the recommended section, Rantaro's recommended looked... Odd. Kaede saw herself there, and him, and their other classmates too, "It's not a real smartphone. It only has a few apps, and they're all related to watching the world of the living. Mine came with one bookmark..."

Kaede couldn't help but speak the title out loud as soon as she saw which video he tapped, "The TRUE story of how Rantaro Amami was MURDERED! NOT CLICKBAIT!"

She raised her voice when she spoke the capital letters. It was impossible to resist.

"They're all like that," Rantaro said, then hit play, "What's important is the content, though. I watched this before any of the videos of the trial became available, so I had no idea that you set a trap... And, well, it wasn't even meant for me. But the truth is..." He trailed off as the screen showed Kaede's shot missing, and Tsumugi peering out from behind the door to toss a ball of her own at the back of Rantaro's head.

"Y-You mean..." Kaede stuttered out, leaning back, "I just got killed... I just got killed for no reason? And the Mastermind is-"

"I'd recommend not watching too many of your own videos," Rantaro cut off her breakdown in a calm, reassuring tone. He'd only been dead a few hours longer than her, but already seemed to be at peace with it, learning quickly how to use the afterlife, "There's no way to communicate with the living, so you'd just be stuck watching them struggle through the rest of the fifty-third Killing Game... Helpless to help them."

Kaede wasn't going to ask what Rantaro meant by fifty-third, or how he could possibly know that. She had enough to deal with right now. Still, she took out her own smartphone imitation, exploring the apps. There was a messaging app, but she trusted when Rantaro said she couldn't use it to communicate with the living. She opened it up, and she was greeted by a tutorial delivered in cute, ghost-shaped bubbles.

[Welcome to the Afterlife Messaging System, Kaede Akamatsu!~]  
[Here in the Afterlife, this smartphone never runs out of battery.]  
[You can use it to keep from getting bored, to keep tabs on the living, and with this app, you can message anybody you've had a face-to-face chat with! Or, the newly dead you knew when you were both alive.]  
[There's also secrets to be uncovered! Some of the games on this phone give you points which can be exchanged for cool and interesting prizes~]  
[I'll let you figure those out on your own. Oh, and happy Deathday!]

In that last bubble, there was an image of a cake. It looked strawberry flavored, and had a cartoon of her face on it with her cheeks turning blue. She hesitated, remembering her final moments. That... Was what happened to her. She would have thought she deserved it, if she hadn't just found out that she wasn't even the one who murdered Rantaro. His name was available in her app.

She looked to him, "I know you've only been dead for a few hours, but do you know anything about these cool and interesting prizes?"

Rantaro shrugged, "I haven't investigated at all. The last time I got a prize for participating in a game, it didn't work out too well for me at all. Ah, Akamatsu," He raised a finger as he explained, "I found out from the GPS app. This is a place called limbo. Within 24 hours, we'll be given access to two other planes. An afterlife village where everyone who dies can live and interact, and the living world, where we can explore but not interact with anything."

"That's nice," Kaede mumbled, setting her phone in her lap before she held both her hands out, staring at them, "If we wanted to stay in touch, this makes it easy. I guess it's nice that the afterlife lets you watch your living friends and stay with your dead ones."

"It's the best afterlife people like us could have hoped for, for sure," Rantaro said with a bitter chuckle on his lips, "It's leagues better than Hell. It's like we're ghosts, but with somewhere else to go if we don't want to haunt people. Though," He noted, staring at the GPS app again, "It seems that we won't actually be allowed to haunt the Ultimate Academy? There's probably other places like that too, though. It makes sense..."

"Amami," Kaede said.

"Yes, Akamatsu?"

"I didn't want to die."

"Me neither."

\----

Shuichi, Maki, and Himiko stood at the precipice of their entire future. The bright light and blue sky out beyond the Ultimate Academy... So Tsumugi wasn't lying when she said that the image they'd seen of a world in ruin was really just a set put together by Team Danganronpa. The outside world... A world full of peace, right?

That was a world which would reject a detective and reject an assassin, because what use would a truly peaceful world have for people like that? That was assuming they weren't rejected from the world merely on the fact that they had been involved in season 53 of Danganronpa. What peaceful world could have room for anyone who'd been present in a Killing Game, even if they were the three to survive, the ones who had abstained from killing anybody and managed to escape without being killed.

One thing was for certain, though. It didn't matter if they were fictional, because their original selves were gone, lost to the power of the blackout light. This was all that they knew. This was who they were now. Maybe there was nobody waiting on the outside for them, no friends or family or anything like that, but they had each other.

Shuichi took a deep breath, then held his hands out to his sides. Maki took one, and Himiko the other, then they stepped out through the hole that Kiibo had blown in the wall of the Academy's Campus. The moment they stepped through the threshold, they found themselves in a field stretching out before them. A ricefield, to be precise. So danganronpa's set was tucked away in the far-off fields of a farm.

That made sense. It wouldn't do for fans to be showing up just to see the dome that became the Ultimate Academy every new killing game semester.

"Hey! You kids!" A man was standing waist-deep in the rice fields, waving at them. He waded out onto one of the elevated paths through the marsh-like farmland and approached, still waving and shouting, "What are you doing, huh? What happened here?"

"Hello," Shuichi greeted the man with an awkward half-wave, "Uh..." He looked behind himself, then back to the rice farmer, "We're from in there."

"You are, huh?" He crossed his arms over his chest, clicking his tongue, "So someone finally got outta there alive... The team's gonna be pissed off about the dome, though. That's some expensive material."

"The team's not going to be pissed off about anything, ever again," Maki spoke up, fixing him with a hard stare, "Didn't you hear? Danganronpa is over. This was the final Killing Game. There won't be any more. The whole academy's destroyed."

"Ah, I don't watch Danganronpa," The man said, "I'd rather just be ignorant. I don't want to know what kind of things are happening on my property... I just collect my paycheck for letting them use the land, and go about my own business. I'm not surprised it's done, it was already on the way out. Viewership dwindling, that kind of stuff..."

"Good," Himiko pouted, "It better not ever happen again..."

"So," The farmer said, "You can call me Tanaka. What are your plans now?"

"We don't know that yet," Maki answered, "Right now, we just want to survive."

"Well," Tanaka looked between the three of them, "I can't offer you this for the long-term or anything, but I could always use a few extra hands around the farm, and I have a guest room. You could stay with me and work for room and board until you're able to find a job somewhere down in town. You won't have to worry about anyone recognizing you, neither. Most people around here don't watch a lot of television."

"Would you really do that for us?" Maki questioned, furrowing her brow, "Why?"

"Because I let what happened to you happen," Tanaka answered, "And, like I said, I can always use the help. What sort of tasks do you think you'll be able to handle? I'll make sure not to overwhelm you. If you can't find jobs and your own place by the time a year's up, though, you're outta luck."

"I could do anything you want me to do," Maki said, "I'm very strong for my size, and capable. I could work in the fields, or help with any livestock you might have. Saihara... is pretty weak for a guy, but he's still got testosterone on his side, I guess. Yumeno, meanwhile," Maki gestured to her tiny friend, "Can probably just do light busywork. Peeling potatoes and the like."

 

"Huh. Well, that's better than I expected," Tanaka said, then looked to Himiko, "Isn't... Danganronpa only supposed to include high school students...?"

"I am a high school student!" Himiko insisted, balling her hands up into fists, "And Harumaki might be right about the fact that I can't do a lot of heavy lifting or anything... But I'll do my best to help out in any way that I can! I can feed chickens and do food prep! I don't know how to cook yet, but I can learn that too..."

"You're very kind, Tanaka," Shuichi said, taking a step forward, "We can get started right away, if you just point us in the direction of the things that need to be done!"

"You're an eager one," Tanaka gave a soft chuckle, then pointed out across the field toward the farmhouse, "But what I do know about Danganronpa... You three could use a good night's rest before I put you to work. Just head back there and talk to my aunt, tell her I sent you, she'll get you some food then show you to the guest room."

"Thank you so much," Shuichi bowed in thanks, then took Maki and Himiko's hands again as he walked off in the direction that Tanaka had pointed. Once reaching the farmhouse, he knocked on the door, and a kindly older woman with soft olive eyes, "Hi. I'm Saihara, and these are my friends Yumeno and Harukawa. Tanaka sent us up from the fields just now..."

"Tanaka...?" The woman blinked, then tapped her own cheek and peered out through the doorway, out toward the field, then back to the children, "What's that boy doing, giving out his first name to random children... Ah!" She froze, staring at them, "You three... Your outfits... Are you actors for Danganronpa? What are you doing here?"

"Actors?" Himiko questioned, then scowled, "No! We're unwilling participants in the Killing Game, and we just escaped!"

"That couldn't be it," Tanaka's aunt blinked a few more times, "Danganronpa's been using actors for a long time. There hasn't been a genuine killing game in decades... The final one was what they ended up calling Danganronpa 3. After that, Despair was vanquished, and Killing Games became fiction, edutainment about our history..."

"Maybe that's what they've told you," Maki's stare burned a hole right through this woman, "But it's not true. I saw all of the bodies myself. Everyone who died in Danganronpa's 53rd season, really did die. We're the ones who escaped."

The woman froze, then motioned the students inside and shut the door behind herself, turning around to face them with her hands clasped before herself, "You mean to tell me that Despair has returned...?"

"Who are you, exactly?" Shuichi asked, realizing that this woman seemed to know a lot, and seemed to have quite a bit riding on the question she asked with something pushing desperation in her voice.

"My name is Komaru Naegi," The woman explained, dropping her hands to her sides, "My older brother was a participant in the Killing Game of Hope's Peak Academy, and the Final Killing Game. And my wife was a participant in the first one, too, and a Killing Game called Demon Hunting that we were both involved in- If Danganronpa has started including real, actual Killing Games again..." She was trembling as she brought her hands up to grip her own arms.

"Despair is dead!" Himiko spoke up, "And so is Hope! We ended Danganronpa with our own lives! There will never be another Killing Game, fictional or otherwise...!" She then glanced away and muttered, "I knew Shirogane was lying about Hope's Peak being fictional and all that..."

"H-Huh?" Komaru froze, and her grip on her own arms loosened, "Danganronpa is over? Completely?"

"Yes," Maki nodded, "It was Saihara's idea. Nobody cast a vote for Despair or for Hope, and thus, Danganronpa ended. Our friend Kiibo exacted punishment on the five of us for refusing to vote, but... Only he and the Mastermind were actually killed. We survived the explosion, and that's why we're here now. But... The Mastermind did say something about spreading despair in the outside world."

"You stopped a great evil in its tracks," Komaru took a few deep breaths, then returned her hands to her sides as she took in the information. Despair had almost returned to this world, but these three survivors had ended Danganronpa before that could happen. She smiled at them, "Ah, well, no wonder Tanaka sent you up to me. I'll get you some food, then you should get some rest. Ah, the guest room has one king-sized bed, is that okay...? The three of you should be able to fit, if you're comfortable."

"Truth be told," Himiko said, looking between her friends then grabbing the rim of her hat to try and hide her embarrassed flush, "After what we've been through, I don't think we'd be comfortable in separate beds."

"That's right," Maki stepped in, putting a hand on Himiko's shoulder, "I'd really prefer if the three of us stayed close to each other as much as possible. I'm still not so convinced that we're safe, and I need to be able to protect my friends."

"I can protect us, too. With my magic," Himiko pouted, but leaned into Maki's hand.

"I understand," Komaru noted, glancing between them, then sighed as she turned to make her way into the kitchen, "How tragic... That it's only the three of you," She sounded like she was holding back tears, "B-Back in my day, Killing Games had five survivors... Sometimes more..."

Maki didn't bother with tact as she followed Komaru, "Did your brother survive both games he participated in? Or do you have another sibling who's Tanaka's parent?"

Komaru turned to look at them again, holding onto the handle of the fridge, "Makoto survived, yes. He is Tanaka's father. We moved out here to get away from the Danganronpa hype, but he and Kyoko travel around often. He's not here right now."

"What about your wife?" Shuichi asked, taking a seat at the table when Komaru gestured for him to do so. Himiko and Maki followed his lead.

"Ah, she's just upstairs. She's writing right now though, so let's not bother her," Through her conflicting emotions, a soft smile played at Komaru's face as she pulled a tupperware container of fried fish from the fridge, then turned to set up the rice cooker, "Is fried fish and rice okay with you? I'm trying to think of something hearty, but quick to make so you can get some sleep. Ah, I can boil some vegetables too. Carrots, cabbage, or peppers? Any preference? I also have celery root, but I think I'm the only person alive who likes boiling _that_."

"That's a weird food. I like carrots," Himiko said.

"I've been told my favorite foods are strange," Komaru noted, "I learned to cook because nobody else would make my weird favorites for me. It comes in handy though, to be able to cook, in general. So, carrots it is?"

Shuichi and Maki had no objections to carrots, so Himiko's choice it was.

Komaru set up the rice and starting boiling some carrots that she'd already cut up, then sat down at the table with the three of them, folding her hands in front of herself before she spoke again, "So... Let's get to know each other. Fifty-three wouldn't be a gimmick number, so I'm sure that you are actually Ultimate Students. The Killing Game I was personally involved in, the Demon Hunt, had more normal people than Ultimates involved. But, well, what are your talents?"

"I'm an Ultimate Detective," Shuichi answered first, "I hear those are common staples of Danganronpa... Ah, I guess if you thought Danganronpa was still using actors, it seems kind of weird that Ultimates still exist, right? Truth is, our talents and pasts were fabricated using something called Flashback Lights..."

Komaru nodded, "I am familiar with the concept, yes. Flashback lights are pretty common tools to teach people how to do complicated jobs. Cutting down on training time and letting people have memories of always knowing how to do their job makes everything more productive... But to think they were used for a Killing Game..."

"They gave me the talent of Ultimate Assassin," Maki noted, looking away, "That's... Especially troubling, I must say. I have all these fabricated memories of doing terrible things, but if I didn't actually do them, do I still need to carry the guilt with me?"

Komaru tapped the table, "Mm, Harukawa. Don't think about that, okay? Survivor's Guilt is hard enough to deal with, we all cope with it in different ways. That's enough shame to try and carry on your shoulders. Think of it like the people you killed in the false memories are no different than NPCs you kill in a video game."

"That's a smart coping method. Thank you, Naegi," Shuichi said, then glanced at Maki, "Do you think that could work for you, Harukawa?"

"Yes, it might," Maki nodded, holding her hands close to herself, "I'll try it, anyway. Though, I think in some ways, that guilt has made me who I am now."

"Could be," Komaru said, then stuck her tongue out, "Naegi? Nah, that's my brother. You can all just call me Komaru. We're friends here."

"Mkay," Himiko agreed, then Komaru stood back up, noticing that the food was about finished. She got everything onto plates, then served it up to her guests and sat down across from them again, "Ah, thanks Komaru."

"Anytime," Komaru said, "It's abundantly clear that you kids aren't lying about your experiences with the Killing Game. It took a ton of money and a whole lot more convincing from team danganronpa, about a decade ago, to let them build that dome for their sets. We should have said no outright. Should have known there was no way that Killing Games could remain fictional forever."

Shuichi froze, then blinked a few times before looking to Komaru, "Hey, uh. That reminds me. The Mastermind was the Ultimate Cosplayer, and she said that she couldn't cosplay real people, only fictional characters, but she could cosplay the people from the first danganronpas..."

"Well, obviously," Komaru shrugged, "Only some of the members of team Danganronpa ever met me, Fukawa, or Naegi. As far as the general populace is concerned, the first ones were fiction too. What started out as an effort to educate people about the dangers of Despair turned into nothing but entertainment, and retroactively got people thinking the first ones were faked too. If your mastermind honestly believed that she had commandeered the first real Killing Games, of course she could cosplay those of us from the early ones."

"That's really sad..." Himiko muttered, starting to eat her carrots between words, "What if the world forgets about the end of Danganronpa too? What if ten years from now, it starts all over again?"

Maki shook her head, "I don't want to believe that could happen. But if it does, you know what we'll do, Yumeno? We'll find Team Danganronpa ourselves, and I'll kill the bastards."

"Well," Shuichi spoke up with a sheepish, wobbly smile, "That makes sense, sure, but our sacrifices wouldn't be in vain. After that last trial, the world could never see another Danganronpa. If Team Danganronpa tried, the whole world would reject them."

"Yes," Maki said, "And then we'd find them and I'd kill them for even thinking that they could put somebody else through what we've endured."

"Whatever you say, Harumaki," Himiko teased, then turned her full attention to the meal in front of her.

"Shut up," Maki teased right back, then also focused on her food, and once they started, the three students realized just how hungry they were. They hadn't had anything to eat since Kibo began his assault on the Ultimate Academy, which was at least sixteen hours ago now. With that in mind, they ate quickly and in silence. Once they were done, Komaru addressed them again.

"Okay. Now, I can only imagine you're as exhausted as you were hungry, so let's get you to that guest room," She stood up and motioned for them to follow her. All three of them obliged, and she led them to another room which, as she'd described, featured a king-sized bed. It would comfortably fit the three of them, especially considering Himiko's small size, "Sleep well. I'm sure my nephew will be keeping you busy soon enough. Oh, uh... I don't think I have any pajamas that could fit any of y-"

"That's fine," Maki said, "Thank you again, Komaru," She then closed the door behind herself, then started to pull her uniform off over her head, addressing the other two, "I think we know each other well enough that it should be no problem to see each other in our underwear for the sake of sleeping comfortably, right?"

"Right," Himiko agreed, starting to undress herself, then looked to Shuichi, "You're okay with it too, right Saihara? You wouldn't dare get turned on by seeing a loli and your best friend's widow in their underwear."

"No way I would," Shuichi agreed and started to unbutton his uniform blazer as well with a half shrug, "It'd be rude to say the least. Besides, I'm so used to seeing the two of you as friends..."

"Not to mention that you're still not over Akamatsu," Maki mumbled, quiet and with sympathy in her voice. She and Shuichi had that common ground; They'd both made the mistake of falling in love during a Killing Game. Maki knew that her feelings were supposedly just engineered by Team Danganronpa, but she couldn't just believe that. It wasn't like she just ended up liking him because it was preordained, she could pinpoint the things he did which made her fall for him.

It all started back when they'd had that ultimatum. When Kaito had looked at her and decided that she could probably fight, and asked her to help battle Monokuma. That was the beginning. Then, he chose to believe in her. To support her in her effort to prompt the truth. To go along with Shuichi's lie that they could back up her claims. Then, when he insisted on becoming her friend while everybody else became afraid of her true talent. When he insisted on Shuichi becoming her friend too.

That much was real.

But Kaito was gone. She climbed into the bed, as did her friends. Himiko curled up in the middle, between Maki and Shuichi, and it didn't take long at all for their exhaustion to overtake them.

\---

Kaede had taken Rantaro's advice and avoided watching the videos.

Of course she did; She couldn't do anything, she didn't need to watch her friends struggle to find the Mastermind that was right under their noses the whole time, the Mastermind who had condemned Kaede to death. She moved on. She got used to her afterlife, and she liked her home.

It seemed the afterlife had a morbid sense of humor, since Kaede's neighborhood within the plane of existence for the dead seemed to be entirely populated by people who had previously been victims to the horror of Killing Games, and Kaede learned that prior to her own, there had been three Danganronpas that weren't fiction. And another five in the distant past which had been real as well.

Her house was nice. It had a piano, and the sort of decor that she liked. It was small enough to be cozy, but large enough that if she wanted to she could have people over for a get-together. Still, there was always that feeling of being disconnected from reality. She was dead. This was a land of the dead, and as much as they tried to act normal, act like living humans, the fact that they'd died would always hang over them.

They'd always feel the discomfort and carry with them the appearance of their dying moments, and they couldn't interact with the world at large in any meaningful way. There was no forgetting that they'd died, that this was just a poor attempt at continuing to exist after a life cut unfortunately short.

Despite Kaede's efforts to ignore the videos, to only know that people had died when they appeared in her contacts list, she couldn't stop herself when she saw the title. "The END of the ULTIMATE ACADEMY! FINAL PUNISHMENT not clickbait!"

She had to watch it. Of course she did, and she was appalled by what she saw. Everybody. Everybody was killed. There were no survivors of this Danganronpa-

But something told her otherwise when she opened her messaging app again. Kibo and Tsumugi had both been added to her contacts list, but the other three weren't. She blinked in surprise, then tapped Kibo's name and sent him a message, "Hey. What happened?"

He answered in no time at all, "The viewers and the rules stated that everyone should be killed in punishment for not voting. But I didn't want to kill those three. So, I just made it look like they were dead. They should be making their way to the outside world right now."

"Well, that's good," Kaede sent back, "I found out from a lovely stabbing victim named Maizono that the Ultimate Academy's dome was actually hidden on property belonging to a survivor of one of the early Danganronpas. Oh, yeah, the first five Danganronpas weren't actually fiction, but everyone believes they were, so that's how Shirogane could cosplay them."

"Interesting. I do hope that those three are able to make it out there, without being recognized by fans of the show. I can't imagine it would go over well, given that they're supposed to be dead and all," Kiibo responded, "Say, Akamatsu? Will I be able to see you? And the others, in person I mean?"

"Yes, once you spend twenty-four hours in Limbo, you can travel freely between it, the Afterlife, and haunting the world of the living," Kaede explained, "But don't you mean in robot, not in person?"

"Akamatsu, you are just as robophobic as ever," Kiibo's reply came in, then a few moments later, "I've missed it."

"You know it's just friendly teasing, yeah?" Kaede chuckled a bit as she sent this text, "I'll see you soon. I bet Iruma will be happy to see you. Sad that you died, but happy to see you again."

"No need to be saddened by my death, though. I faced it head-on!" Kiibo assured her, "Now, Akamatsu, are you aware that you did not kill Amami?"

"Yes," Kaede replied, "I found that out as soon as I died. I'm going to have some choice words for Shirogane, that's for sure."

"Choice words from Kaede Akamatsu. That's a little hard to imagine. But, I give you my blessing. She had us all fooled, and caused us to do such awful things to one another..."

With that, Kaede put her phone away and sighed, running a hand back through her hair. Choice words. Now, to actually choose what those would be. Being this upset with somebody was kind of new to her. In life, she'd never kept grudges, always been a friendly person as much as she could. Even as she plotted to lay a trap for the Mastermind... Well, now she knew that trap wouldn't have even worked. She hated the Mastermind, but without knowing who it was. Truly hating a person was new territory.

But forgiving Tsumugi? That wasn't possible either. Not for the suffering she caused Kaede, but everyone else.

Maybe, Kaede thought, the best revenge would be to introduce Tsumugi to her idol.


End file.
